Tammerlin Drummond: More to Lockyer story than meets the eye

At 2:40 a.m. Feb. 3, police in Newark responded to a 911 call from the Homewood Suites Motel.

A distraught woman said she had been attacked by an ex-boyfriend. Her head and neck injuries required medical treatment.

Sounds like your classic domestic violence complaint. Only, the victim was Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer. Lockyer is married to state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, 70, who has been prominent in state politics for four decades. His wife, 40, is viewed as a rising star. Which makes this one hot political mess.

The incident had been hush-hush until a report appeared last Sunday in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The next day, Nadia Lockyer announced that she had gone into rehab for chemical dependency -- stemming, she said, from an old car accident. She also disclosed that she had had an extramarital affair. The Lockyer camp says the couple had been separated but recently reunited. "Alcoholism and addiction are diseases from which many of us suffer," she said, "and unfortunately I have not been spared."

Politician gets caught in compromising situation with someone other than her spouse, announces that she is seeking treatment for substance abuse.

That story line is not uncommon in public life.

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What is bizarre is Bill Lockyer's initial explanation for his wife's presence at the motel with another man. Lockyer told the Chronicle that he and his wife had had a phone argument. After they hung up, he said, she went to the motel to comfort her suicidal ex-boyfriend. "He seems to have a long history of involvement with the criminal justice system," Lockyer was quoted as saying, "but her only fault is occasionally having one too many drinks."

Seriously? Was that a clumsy attempt at damage control? It raises more questions than it silences.

Why was Nadia Lockyer really in a motel room at almost 3 in the morning with an allegedly "ex" boyfriend? What made him to attack her as she reported to the police?

Nadia Lockyer's car accident was in 1999. How long has she suffered from substance abuse? Has she ever been in rehab before this?

What substances is she being treated for? How long will she be in rehab? How will this affect her ability to carry out her duties as an elected official? How many more sordid details will emerge?

Stephen Chikhani, the man Nadia Lockyer is accusing of attacking her, denied her account. He told the Oakland Tribune that the only truths were "that I have a record and that they were separated. ... Pretty much everything else was made up by her husband." The 35-year-old San Jose man has not been charged.

Newark police referred the case to Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley on Feb. 6. Early Thursday, a spokeswoman said the DA was reviewing the police report and medical evidence. Later Thursday, O'Malley said she was turning the case over to Attorney General Kamala Harris due to a potential conflict of interest. O'Malley had endorsed Lockyer for supervisor. Also, before she was elected supervisor in 2010, Lockyer was director of the Alameda County Family Justice Center, which is overseen by the district attorney's office.

Lockyer had almost no experience as an elected public official when she announced her run for supervisor. She had served on the Santa Ana Unified School Board in Orange County. What she did have was a husband with powerful connections and lots of cash. Bill Lockyer donated $1.1 million to his wife's campaign, which allowed her to outspend her opponents.

The Tribune editorial board did not endorse Lockyer because of the thinness of her resume. We interviewed the candidate and examined her glossy campaign literature. In the end, we felt like we really didn't know much about her. Turns out we knew even less than we imagined.